[SOLVED] Is it safe to use/rely on an external HDD permanently or should get an internal one?

[fragment0]

Hi, I'd appreciate an advise here and just knowing what others think/do in general...

I had an i7 9700k "Windows 10 HOME" PC with 500GB SSD which was a C: drive and 2TB HDD (pic below) which was my D: drive where I stored all my games/steam/programs/music and pretty much anything that I could get on there was on D drive while SSD C: drive was there just for whatever windows would decide had to go on it i e win updates, programs or files that PC would force on C: etc

Now I got an i7 13700KF with Windows 11 Pro 64-bit that only has 2TB SSD with NO HDD at all and so I started wondering if I could move my HDD onto new PC...

So I was hoping I could just take out my internal HDD from old computer and just install in my new computer, but I know that sometimes some files could still be linked with SSD as well as I read that there could be issues after I install HDD with some files not being found/recognized and some file locations might change and/or letters of some folders replaced with additional letters etc, and it might not be too easy to locate stuff and could become very annoying unless you know what you're doing, which I don't, so I want to stay away from any situation where after installing my HDD onto my new system that it would not like something, so I was told to get an external HDD.

I got this below:

I haven't played around nor connected it yet, but looks like I can just connect this thing to my old HDD, copy/paste the most important things/folders onto that external drive and then just connect it to my new PC and use it just the same as I did before on my old pc with one exception that now its going to be an external one dangling behind my desktop and not an internal one.

That said, can someone advise if this is really going to work well, is anyone using external HDD and stores games, steam folder on it? Im a bit skeptical and not sure if it'd do exactly the same job as the internal one. Would there be a difference in speed, loadinng times in comparrison with internal HDD? Im just talking bout HDD, i know SSD is better in loading times, but i kinda want to still keep all my huge files, programs, games on HDD, so I wonder having the above external HDD... will it work just the same as internal and I should not have issues, would i still be able to choose it as my primary drive/location for downloading files when asked where i want to download a file/game to be downloaded to and it would give me an option to get it on that external one? Can anyone advise of pros/conns or there is really no difference betwen internal/external except that its gonna be a usb connection and id have to find a spot for it to lay on forever?

Thank you

 

[Lafong]

Not quite clear of your intent, but I'm not sure if I see any advantage in using an HDD in an external dock/enclosure when the same drive could be attached internally.

But I may not fully understand what you are trying to avoid or accomplish.

 

[TerryLaze]

External drive will be much slower and there will be the occasional disconnect or windows won't connect it in the first place and it will run much hotter due to the enclosure and if the power supply isn't the best it could also provide bad power causing issues.

Steam allows you to choose a steam library on any drive so that will work, and if you configure your browser to ask you where to save you will be able to select the external drive as well.

The only reason people tell you to get an external for your situation is because it gets an drive letter that is after the ones you already have so there is no chance for the new drive to replace one of your old ones.

You should really try and connect the drive internally, just connect it to the sata port with the highest number, and you can still change the drive letters within windows if need be.

 

[fragment0]

External drive will be much slower and there will be the occasional disconnect or windows won't connect it in the first place and it will run much hotter due to the enclosure and if the power supply isn't the best it could also provide bad power causing issues.

Steam allows you to choose a steam library on any drive so that will work, and if you configure your browser to ask you where to save you will be able to select the external drive as well.

The only reason people tell you to get an external for your situation is because it gets an drive letter that is after the ones you already have so there is no chance for the new drive to replace one of your old ones.

You should really try and connect the drive internally, just connect it to the sata port with the highest number, and you can still change the drive letters within windows if need be.

Thanks for the detailed reply!

So if I understand correctly you mean I should just use my existing HDD from old PC with all the stuff on it and just hook it up in my new PC and see what happens, and I guess the only issue i will likely face is because it would give it a new drive letter meaning I would have to manually select correct trive any time i load a game or try to open a folder because it would be trying to find the old D: drive letter and wouldn't be able to find it, is that correct? IS there a chance I might damage new pc or corrupt any files with the installation of the old HDD? it shouldn't be conflicting with the SSD thats on there, right? i shouldnt break anything, windows should have no issues with the old HDD from prev pc?

I think ill maybe just buy a new internal HDD and start over from scratch without porting anything over to avoid potential headaches I might just maybe port some of my music folders and be it...

 

[DSzymborski]

It's not a bad idea. Do you currently have backups? If not, you absolutely should; it's a basic part of PC upkeep. If you get a new internal HDD, you can use the external drive as one of your backups (two backups of important data is the bare minimum in best practices for PC upkeep).

 

[fragment0]

It's not a bad idea. Do you currently have backups? If not, you absolutely should; it's a basic part of PC upkeep. If you get a new internal HDD, you can use the external drive as one of your backups (two backups of important data is the bare minimum in best practices for PC upkeep).

Nah, did not back anything up, but definitely should start doing it, cool. Ya, i think what Ill do is I'll just get a new internal HDD for 2TB or something, so this way Ill have the currently in place SSd of 2TBs there for windows' files and whatever it would be forcing to go there by default and then I'll have 2TB of internal and I'll just start over again from scratch with it, one step at a time, to avoid potential headaches...

Thank you

 

[TerryLaze]

Thanks for the detailed reply!

So if I understand correctly you mean I should just use my existing HDD from old PC with all the stuff on it and just hook it up in my new PC and see what happens, and I guess the only issue i will likely face is because it would give it a new drive letter meaning I would have to manually select correct trive any time i load a game or try to open a folder because it would be trying to find the old D: drive letter and wouldn't be able to find it, is that correct? IS there a chance I might damage new pc or corrupt any files with the installation of the old HDD? it shouldn't be conflicting with the SSD thats on there, right? i shouldnt break anything, windows should have no issues with the old HDD from prev pc?

I think ill maybe just buy a new internal HDD and start over from scratch without porting anything over to avoid potential headaches I might just maybe port some of my music folders and be it...

The worst thing that can happen is that the system will see the old hdd as the boot drive which will stop your system from booting unless you can figure out how to change the boot drive in bios.
Putting the old hdd into the highest number port should prevent that but it's not a sure bet.

Since the new system only has the one boot ssd the old hdd should still show up as the D drive, unless there is another drive somewhere or if the ssd is cut into partitions.

If it shows up as D you won't have to change the drive letter but some software will still not run until you reinstall it.

 

[Misgar]

If you remove a hard disk from inside a computer and fit it into an external USB3 housing, any files stored on the drive may become temporarily invisible due to "sector translation". Some USB enclosures silently convert the 512-byte sectors on certain hard disks to 4096-byte sectors. The same is true if you shuck a hard disk containing files out of a USB enclosure and fit the drive inside a computer. The files may become temporarily invisible.

If you're not sure about the sector size of your hard disk, my advice would be to avoid moving the drive to/from a USB housing. An old drive of 2TB or less is more likely to have 512-byte sectors. If you do run into this problem, move the drive back to the original location and the files should become visible again. Alternatively, reformat the drive in its new location.